That worked out well. Now, if I only had one of those yellow thingies in your first pic, lol.

I finally got the crossmember down, at least enough to drop it. I've got one stubborn bolt 1/2 way outI may have to cut off. At least I was able to get the pan off and to my delight, the filter/pickup was in fact lying on the bottom of the pan. I figure it's about a 97% chance that'll fix the problem when I get it back together. There is still a possibility of course of a problem with the pump, but I don't think so. Gonna repaint the crossmember and clean up a bit under there while it's apart.
I wonder why they don't put draincocks on transmisions, and why Ford does not use at least one screw to secure the filter in place.

There used to be drain cocks on the tranny.
About the filter...excellent question...one would think...well...if they thought...we'd not be having this discussion.

RE: the stuck bolt...soak that puppy with some PB Blaster or even a squirt of 3-1 and see if that convinces it to come to daddy!   

It's gotten lots of PB. When I installed it originally, I put new grade 8 bolts, that's the only reason it hasn't broken off. Got the new filter and gasket tonight. Tomorrow, I'll clean things up and start putting it back together.

Rich, do you possibly have a deep pan?  The grommet seals the filter to the valve body but the pan typically prevents the filter from dropping down similar to what GM used.  A deep pan could allow the stock filter to drop down.

Quote from: RICH MUISE on 2023-12-30 23:06It's gotten lots of PB. When I installed it originally, I put new grade 8 bolts, that's the only reason it hasn't broken off. Got the new filter and gasket tonight. Tomorrow, I'll clean things up and start putting it back together.

Try using black brake caliper grease on the thread when you put them back in. The bolts won't back out, but should you ever need to remove them again (or any one else does) they will come out much smoother and with no damage to the male or female threading.

The pan is stock. I also would have thought the pan would prevent that from happening, but the filter being off was what my transmission guy suspected, so I guess it can happen even with a stock setup. Seems strange though....think of all the jarring potholes and bumps a car goes over in its lifetime. I thought about attaching a sponge-like small pad on the bottom of the filter, but don't want anything in there that might disintegrate/break down over the years.
Good idea with the caliper grease, somewhere I've got some Loctite anti-seize I was going to use after I pick up some new bolts and run a tap thru the holes.

The old C4 and C6 automatic transmission did use multiple bolts to attach the screen/filter to the valve body, but I guess the bean counters at the factory figured out that if they could eliminate a couple of bolts per vehicle, times X amount of vehicles per year, even at 2 cents per bolt, they would save enough money to give the executives a big bonus!

Sadly...there may be slme truth in that. Miss the times when CAR GUYS built cars instead of accountants and draftsmen.

Did a little rough measuring before I put the new filter back on. The pan is about 2 7/16 deep, the bottom of the installed filter is about 2 3/16 into the pan, so 1/4" gap. The filter has a rubber seal/ring very close to the top of the tube.
I discovered the old seal was still in the transmission, so I suspect what happened was the filter dropped down enough to separate it from that seal, but not all the way off until I dropped the pan, but enough for it to loose it's suction.
So, with that said, my estimate of 97% probability of fixing the issue is down to about 75%. It's gonna be a day or two before I know.

Naturally being of a positive nature...I am gonna stick with the 97% ranking! 

this is just very random info, but fwiw, the Fordomatic has a neat spring clip to keep the filter up and also a little tab spot welded in the pan to prevent the spring clip coming off. real nice old timey engineering.

Thanks for the pics...........that spring clip is a nice feature. Reading the Mark VIII manual, it says to check the tranny for removing the grommet/seal from the hole after removing the filter....so I guess that's a normal thing. Kinda like checking the engine block for an oil filter seal before installing a new filter.
I'm not going to be able to pick up new cross-member bolts today, obviously, Happy new years guys!

Not too much luck yesterday getting the cross-member back on. Can't see where studs, etc are in relation to holes in cross-member. The transmission is jacked up as far as it will go, so trying to get that really-tight-fitting cross-member back on with the holes right under the studs! URG! This is a bitch with just the car raised a little, and having to jocky around between jack stands and floor jacks.
Going to try a different approach today, may go to Harbor Freight and pick up a cheap ($90) inspection camera.

   Don't forget to leave a magnet in the bottom of the pan.